‘I’m disappointed’
Page F1From§Eachthe early evening edition — 1 September 2026
IRS audit revenue falls as workforce shrinks; Congress spares shutdown by saving House Speaker
Audit revenue: down. IRS workforce: down. Two lines, one ledger. The watchdog finds a direct correlation: as the number of auditors shrinks, so does the money caught in audits—millions in lost revenue, each dollar now uncollected, each file now unexamined. At the same time, Congress spares the Speaker from a shutdown, two members crossing the aisle to keep the lights on. The gap between the money that’s missing and the money Congress protects is precise: the IRS loses what it can't investigate, while the Speaker’s office survives by the narrowest margin. The institutional link is clear. The funds that would have come from audits are now absent, and the only thing keeping the government open is a pair of votes. The math isn’t a surprise, hon: the money is in the files nobody audits. The files aren’t missing; the workforce is. The column gap is the audit ledger. The missing dollars don’t vanish—they just slip out of reach, safe for the folks who fill the Speaker’s chair. Run the numbers, and the answer is always: the money’s there, just not for you.
“They tell you there’s no money, but it’s sitting right where the IRS used to look. Shut down the audits, keep the Speaker’s chair warm, and the cash stays hidden from the taxman and safe for the folks at the top.”
“Well, workforce reductions are unfortunate, but aren’t we all tightening our belts? The drop in audit revenue is just a sign of efficiency. And saving the Speaker from a floor shutdown is just good governance—did I say 'good'? I mean, the kind that keeps everything running, except maybe audits. Nobody likes audits.”
The receipts
IRS audits collected $3.5 billion less in fiscal 2025 as the agency shed thousands of auditors and other agency staffers.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.